Cross platform workflow management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9400728-B2
Application number	US-201313740325-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 14, 2013
Priority date	Jan 14, 2013
Publication date	Jul 26, 2016
Grant date	Jul 26, 2016

Abstract

A method and system for real-time monitoring of processes to obtain job data of jobs running on different non-compatible platforms with a Java monitoring agent, then saving, reporting and making the job data available at any time for viewing by a system administrator on a single display monitor.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for providing a webpage job monitoring and scheduling application, the method comprising:
scheduling a plurality of jobs resident and running on different non-compatible platforms and to a scheduled jobs tracking table, wherein each platform of the different non-compatible platforms comprises a runtime monitoring agent,
monitoring periodically, by said runtime monitoring agent, for each of the plurality of jobs on each of the different non-compatible platforms: (1) a start time, (2) an end time, (3) a current runtime, (4) an average runtime, (5) an acceptable completion time of a job of the plurality of jobs defined as falling within a period equaling a sum of the average runtime and a predetermined tolerance value, whereby an alert is initiated when the current runtime of a job of the plurality of jobs exceeds the respective job's acceptable completion time, and (6) an exclusion list of jobs excluded from being alerted,
wherein a batch job is excluded from being alerted based on its presence in the job exclusion list and further based on its respective start and stop times;
wherein the scheduling and the monitoring of the plurality of jobs further comprises:
utilizing, by said runtime monitoring agent, a statistics file comprising the average runtimes for completion of each job of the plurality of jobs, a tolerance file comprising the acceptable completion times for each job of the plurality of jobs based upon the job's respective average completion time, and an exclusion file containing the names of all files which are excluded from alert notification if the current runtime for the job of the plurality of jobs is outside of the tolerance range of times for the given job; and
determining the average run time for a completed job of the plurality of jobs based on historical runtime data prior to determining whether the completed job is subject to alert exclusion,
saving, by the runtime monitoring agent, job data of each of the scheduled jobs that have completed in a predetermined format for each of the plurality of jobs to a job stats table,
receiving, from said runtime monitoring agent the statistics file, the tolerance file, and the exclusion file;
storing, in the job stats table, the statistics file, the tolerance file, and the exclusion file;
displaying on a single display the job stats table data including alerts associated with jobs that have exceeded the acceptable completion time.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the average runtime is a mean average time in which previous jobs have been completed.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the alert comprises an email notification, a pop-up screen, flashing text, highlighted text and colored text.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein each job on the exclusion list has an expiry date after which the exclusion of the alert expires.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the current runtime of each of the plurality of jobs is a lapsed time measured from the start time to the current time.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the job stats table comprises parameters for each of the plurality of jobs including: job names, start times, end times, run times, run dates, platform names, average runtimes, tolerance ranges and alerts.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of jobs includes batch jobs comprising accounts payable, accounts receivable, product stocking, product reordering, payroll, purchase of goods, sales of goods, employee work schedule, delivery schedule, shipping schedule, replenishment forecasts, logistics workflow triggering, and item file information.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the runtime monitoring agent updating a runtime monitoring table with data for each of the plurality of jobs.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising fetching data from the runtime monitoring table of the plurality of jobs running on different non-compatible platforms to display on a display screen.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising fetching data from the scheduled jobs tracking table to display jobs of the plurality of jobs resident and running on different non-compatible platforms scheduled on a display screen.

11. A computer-implemented method for providing a webpage job monitoring and scheduling application, the method comprising:
scheduling a plurality of jobs resident and running on different non-compatible platforms and to a scheduled jobs tracking table, wherein each platform of the different non-compatible platforms comprises a runtime monitoring agent;
monitoring periodically the plurality of jobs resident and running on different non-compatible platforms with said runtime monitoring agent, said runtime monitoring agent for each of the plurality of jobs on each of the different non-compatible platforms monitoring and saving in a job stats table (1) a start time, (2) an end time, and (3) a current runtime, and wherein the jobs tracking table stores and tracks job data for each job;
wherein the scheduling and the monitoring of the plurality of jobs further comprises:
utilizing, by said runtime monitoring agent, a statistics file comprising the average runtimes for completion of each job of the plurality of jobs, a tolerance file comprising the acceptable completion times for each job of the plurality of jobs based upon the job's respective average completion time, and an exclusion file containing the names of all files which are excluded from alert notification if the current runtime for the job of the plurality of jobs is outside of the tolerance range of times for the given job;
populating, via the runtime monitoring agent, a runtime monitoring table comprised of a list of the plurality of jobs running;
receiving, from said runtime monitoring agent the statistics file, the tolerance file, and the exclusion file;
determining and saving in the job stats table an average runtime for each of the plurality of jobs that have completed running on the different non-compatible platforms based on historical data stored within the job stats table, wherein the job stats table further stores the statistics file, the tolerance file, and the exclusion file used by the runtime monitoring agent for processing the jobs resident and running on the different non-compatible platforms;
determining and saving within the job stats table an acceptable completion time for each of the plurality of jobs running, the acceptable completion time defined as falling within a period equaling a sum of the average runtime and a predetermined tolerance value;
determining and saving within the runtime monitoring table whether a given running job is subject to an alert exclusion by examining a predetermined exclusion list of jobs stored within the job stats table;
saving an alert into the runtime monitoring table when the current runtime of the given running job exceeds the sum of the average runtime and the predetermined tolerance value for the given running job, and when the given running job is not subject to alert exclusion; and
displaying the list, including alerts associated with jobs that have exceeded the acceptable completion time, on a display from the runtime monitoring table of the plurality of jobs running.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the job stats table comprises parameters for each of the plurality of jobs including: job names, start times, end times, run times, run dates, platform names, average processing times, tolerance ranges and alerts.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the plurality of jobs comprises accounts payable, accounts receivable, product stocking, product reordering, payroll, purchase of goods, sales of goods, emplo

Assignees

• Wal Mart Stores Inc

Inventors

• Pattnaik Suman
• Rex Michael
• Jayakumar Suchithra
• Davies John
• Gelua Nelson
• Rath Madhusmita

Classifications

• G06F2201/865

  Monitoring of software · CPC title

• G06F11/3433

  for load management (allocation of a server based on load conditions G06F9/505; load rebalancing G06F9/5083; redistributing the load in a network by a load balancer H04L67/1029) · CPC title

• G06F11/3419

  by assessing time · CPC title

• G06F2201/835

  Timestamp · CPC title

• G06F11/3006 Primary

  where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems (multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50) · CPC title